The New York Times was sitting on a headline - "Madam President" - that it never got to use, when Republican candidate Donald Trump took the US presidency.
As the United States and other North American newspapers rushed to print after a gruelling night of ballot-counting, newsrooms in other timezones were already up and about on an earth-shattering day. Some of the flustered headlines would have to wait for Thursday (Nov 10) morning.
The Straits Times rounds up the front pages from around the world.
HAMBURGER MORGENPOST (GERMANY) - "BITTE NICHT DEN HORROR-CLOWN! (PLEASE NOT THE HORROR-CLOWN!)"
Right before the elections, the German tabloid from the city of Hamburg asked what was on everyone's minds: What was ahead for the world, and which candidate would Americans prefer?
In the end, the US electorate picked the presidential option that the Morgenpost had christened - in orange font, to match his signature hairdo - the "Horror-Clown".
LE JOURNAL DE QUEBEC (CANADA) - "OH MY GOD!"
"Trump à la Maison-Blanche (Trump to the White House)," the French-language Canadian newspaper from Quebec province declared when Wednesday (Nov 9) broke on the eastern seaboard of the North America.
In much bigger letters: "Oh my God!"
HET PAROOL (THE NETHERLANDS)
No words sufficed for Amsterdam's Het Parool tabloid, which broke the news of the election results to the Dutch by simply showing a cartoon of Mr Trump flashing the thumbs up sign.
VANGUARDIA (MEXICO) - "LA 'AMENAZA' TRIUNFO (THE 'MENACE' TRIUMPHED)"
Mexican newspaper Vanguardia's front page was in full funereal black-and-white, and the paper ran a photograph of Mr Trump yelling into a microphone with his index finger jabbed squarely at the audience.
"With his discourse of hate and segregation, Donald Trump is president of the United States," the Spanish-language front page lamented, running stories forecasting economic doom in the US' southern neighbour.
LIBERATION (FRANCE) - "AMERICAN PSYCHO"
Centre-left French newspaper Liberation's post-Brexit front page showed a Union Jack-adorned Boris Johnson suspended from a zipwire, with a caption - perhaps aimed at the British government, perhaps at the British people - reading "Good Luck".
Libe, as it is popularly known, was even more unsparing in the wake of Mr Trump's win. Its front page - "la une", in French - featured a dark photograph of Mr Trump with all his features obscured except for his right hand pointing towards the shadowy backdrop of an American flag.
Liberation had earlier produced a special election-night edition headlined "Trumpocalypse".
THE DOMINION POST (NEW ZEALAND) - "WTF"
The Kiwi newspaper clarified in the next line that the acronym, which referred to the conventional expletive, also stood for "Why Trump Flourished".
"It's a result no one saw coming," journalist Tracy Watkins wrote in the front-page political analysis. "Yet, like Britain's shock vote to leave the European Union, they probably should have."
THE PHILIPPINE STAR/PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER (THE PHILIPPINES) - "OMG! IT'S TRUMP!"
Both The Philippine Star and Philippine Daily Inquirer ran the same headlines on page one, although the Inquirer threw in two exclamation marks for good measure.
Although Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had said that the US and the Philippines would maintain a cordial working relationship, the Inquirer was less sanguine about global markets' prospects.
NEWCASTLE HERALD (AUSTRALIA) - "HELP"
Australia's Newcastle Herald succinctly made its feelings clear when it ran a campaign-style portrait of Mr Trump, captioned with the only word on its front page: Help.
THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD - "DEAR AMERICA... NO YOU CAN'T!"
With a twist on outgoing US President Barack Obama's slogan "Yes we can", the Herald was clear where it stood on the nature of a Trump presidency.
Its red, white and blue portrait of Mr Trump was accompanied by the headlines "A test of our time" and "A day of chaos looms".
THE SUN - "D'OH!"
In an episode that aired 16 years ago, animated comedy The Simpsons "predicted" that Mr Trump would take the White House. What was once seen as a ridiculous episode has now come true, said The Sun in their front page on Nov 10.
DAILY MAIL - "TRUMPQUAKE"
Daily Mail compared the Mr Trump winning the presidency to an earthquake that sent "shockwaves on both sides of the Atlantic", and called the win a "Trumpquake".
